Lake Vostok Preliminary Drilling Results

The preliminary results from the drilling of Lake Vostok earlier this year have now been made public:

This week the preliminary results of the upper layer of the ancient lake are in: the first analysis of the ice that froze onto the drillbit used in
last February’s landmark drilling shows no native microbes came up with the lake water, according to Sergey Bulat of Petersburg Nuclear Physics
Institute (Russia) and Nature blog.

This uppermost zone of Lake Vostok appears to be “lifeless” so far, says Bulat, but that doesn’t mean the rest of it is according to what he
calls his team’s “very preliminary results” on Tuesday, at the 12th European Workshop on Astrobiology (ENEA 2012), in Stockholm, Sweden, at the
AlbaNova University Center.

The Russian scientists drilled down to the oxygen-rich lake at the rate of four meters a day, which is buried beneath a sheet of ice almost four
kilometers thick, and extracted water samples for analysis. If extreme life is found in the lake, this would have implications for the possibilities
of life on Jupiter’s moon Europa or Saturn’s satellite Enceladus, both of which host a similar environment.

I know many of us will be disappointed with this initial report, but we should remain hopeful we'll find something of interest when they analyze the
water at lower depths.

I'm sure they probably allready have an idea what it is, if its natural they will tell us what an incredible find it is, if its of alien origin , the
story will be lost and forgotten but you will see a 10 fold in personell and equipment going to the Vostok area!! But "nothing is going on" "
just routine exploring"

Then the Norwegian base will lose contact with the outside world and then the American base and we will hear news reports that Kurt Russell was killed
while shooting a movie in Antarctica!! Lol

Even though we have no headline results so far, the actual drilling is a spectacular scientific event in and of itself.
Quoting the article:

Because of the long isolation, it's believed that Lake Vostok could contain new lifeforms, and unique geochemical processes. The overlying ice
provides a continuous paleo-climatic record of 400,000 years, although the lake water itself may have been isolated for as long as 15 million
years.

Russian researchers have thawed ice estimated to be perhaps a million years old or more from above the ancient lake that lies hidden more than two
miles beneath the frozen surface of Antarctica. Scientists used genomic techniques to determine how tiny, living "time capsules" survived the ages
in total darkness, in freezing cold, and without food and energy from the sun.

I found another article regarding the preliminary drilling results at Lake Vostok that also references new drilling sites at two other Antarctic
lakes.

A team from the British Antarctic Survey is on a competing mission, set to plumb the depths of Lake Ellsworth, one of a string of more than 370 lakes
beneath Antarctica that may soon see light for the first time. And a third Antarctic expedition -- a study of the subglacial Whillans Ice Stream --
mainly features U.S. scientists.

Thanks for the update. It's warming up in the Southern Hemisphere so they'll be drilling again soon. Yesterday I read that some aircraft couldn't
leave an Australian Antarctic because the runway was melting, so it's unseasonally warm too.

I have been waiting for this information myself and I assume there are others who are also looking. I am a wee bit disappointed but the first attempt
is far from the final. Life is resilient and thrives in even the harshest conditions. Lets just wait and see.

The sad part is that in their rush to be "first' the method used by the Russian team has a very real chance of contaminating the untouched lake.
Look at the press release, no "native" microbes came up. Which means non native microbes most likely did. Very sad.

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